Don’t expect ex-gay therapy to get the green light from Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring anytime soon, despite what the American Family Foundation tells you.

The Christian-advocacy group is reporting the ex-gay therapy group Voice of the Voiceless is in talks (via the Liberty Council) with the Virginia AG’s office to allow the medically debunked treatment on the state’s public college campuses, but the AG’s office has told GayRVA otherwise.

“We are not in negotiations with these parties,” said AG Herring’s Director of Communications Michael Kelly in an email. “And [we] have no plans to do so.”

Chris Doyle, the leader of VOV and a self proclaimed ex-gay, went undercover to colleges like VCU and George Mason University and spoke with student resource centers about receiving ex-gay therapy on campus.

The campus therapists refused to provide the treatment, and told the activist it could cause him to “become psychologically-damaged, depressed, and even commit suicide.”

In 2009, the American Psychological Association released a statement condemning ex-gay therapy saying “there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation.”

“Unfortunately, much of the research in the area of sexual orientation change contains serious design flaws,” wrote Judith M. Glassgold, PsyD, chair of the APA task force assigned to study ex-gay therapy. ”Few studies could be considered methodologically sound and none systematically evaluated potential harms.”

AFA is calling the state’s refusal to allow the medically damaging treatment an act of “LGBTQ hostility.”

“This is about trying to stifle – through the force of power of the government – any kind of view that homosexuality can change or [that] you can reduce your attractions, your behavior, or your identity,” Liberty Counsel founder Matt Staver told AFA’s One News Now. ”That threatens their very existence.”

“Hearts and minds on this issue are changing on a daily basis,” said the bill’s author Delegate Patrick Hope after it failed to get out of committee. ”Virginia is poised to be one of the next states to outlaw this terrible procedure.”

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